Most companies think about extending their brand to maximize their exposure and value. That’s why we have HUMMER cologne (at least while the vehicles were in production), and Purple Oreos. In many cases, these brand extensions makes sense: if a brand’s primary product has entered a phase of slow or low growth, extending the brand to new products may invigorate the whole line. And sometimes a brand extension is more of a statement. A costly fragrance with your product’s logo likely won’t generate massive revenues, but it may enhance the primary product’s image as a luxury item. And where would Coke be without Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and its other siblings?

Sometimes, though a tight brand focus can be the key ingredient for success. I’m reading Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business by Nancy Lublin, and she provides a personal example of keeping a brand tightly focused. […]

I’ve written about some of the research that shows that shoppers don’t always respond positively to a bigger selection of products (see More Choices, Fewer Sales) and extreme product/brand proliferation (see Mega-Branding: The Purple Oreo Problem). Now, retailers are implementing the concept of reducing selection in their stores and finding that it can indeed increase sales. […]